After climbing The Cobble Mountain earlier in the morning, I headed a little bit east to hike my second peak of the day, Clements Mountain. On the drive over, I paused briefly to soak in the serenity of the East Branch of the Ausable River.
Clements Mountain is a relatively small mountain. that sits right between the Sentinel Mountain Range to west and the Jay Mountain Range to the east. From Highland Farm along Glen Road, the view north to Clements Mountain is impressive.
I parked at the trailhead for Clements Pond, along Glen Road, and began the hike along the trail, under a canopy of gold.
After just over 1/3 of a mile on the trail, I turned east, into the woods, beginning the bushwhack. It is a very steep climb up to about 2100 feet, and then the woods turn very open and filled with red pine.
Nearing the top, there are several fun rock scrambles.
West views from a set of open ledges towards the Sentinels.
An impressive NW view towards Upper Jay(right) and Clements Pond(left).
A zoom view down towards Clements Pond.
While most of the hike is through hardwoods, there are a couple of scratchy spruce areas near the true summit, which is fully wooded and covered in thick spruce.
My descent was pretty straightforward down off the SW ridge, where I found yet another spectacular viewpoint back down towards Highland Farm on Glen Road.
From the same vantage point looking up the valley east towards Jay Mountain(far left).
Even with the sun shining bright, I caught a glimpse south towards a passing shower in the High Peaks.
Passed through a couple of steep, rock filled ravines on the way down, before eventually hitting the trail and following it back out. Just over 3 miles RT with over 1400 feet of ascent.
No comments:
Post a Comment